Bruce Banner - The Abysmal
by Kuzcopia
Summary: Bruce Banner is tired of being treated like a carrier case for the Hulk, so he quits the Avengers, planning to make a proper life for himself. Then a new young Hulk shows up in the middle of Vietnam.
1. More Than a Weapon

_**Disclaimer: Goes without saying but I do not own Bruce Banner nor the Hulk nor any other Marvel character herein included. They're the properties of the original creators as dictated by official documents, whom you can find out more about in Wikipedia or something. Stan Lee, Marvel Comics, etc.**_

 _ **Tuan aka The Abysmal as well as the plot related to them, the monsters and the military, are original by me, but they're still set in the Marvel Universe so I still hold no rights to them.**_

 _ **Rating: T for a bit of violence. I censor profanity like they would in a comic, if I ever use it.**_

 _ **(This story happens in the same timeline/universe as Spider-Man: Repulse, but it's self contained.)**_

* * *

 **PART 1:** MORE THAN A WEAPON

"Kids! Why are we letting brats be Avengers, again?"

"He's almost thirty, Tony," Bruce pointed out, but the most creative engineer in the world didn't really want to hear it. He never wanted to hear it.

"Biologically, maybe. His team's about to go on a mission, but instead, he just goes off after some new mutant? Doesn't he know that never ends well? Million dollars says he ends up getting a beating by some of the X-Men."

Bruce knew there was no point in replying. No one in that room even had enough money to take that bet, and that was just one of many things that rubbed him the wrong way. He had been giving his life a lot of thought lately, and the fact he should be every bit as rich as Tony Stark was one of the things nagging at him.

"So I take it we leave without him," said the intercom, not really posing any question.

"You gotta talk to him, Steve," Tony said, "this is a whole new level of enterprise we're trying for, here. A whole new level!"

"Me?" the voice asked. "Talk to spider-man?

Tony lifted his hands, gesturing around with impatience. "Yes. Bruce's got a point, I baby him too much. You're the team leader, so you make him understand he's part of the damn team. You know what we're trying to do, having our members going rogue is the last thing we need."

There was no sigh nor the least bit of pause. Captain America was apt at giving the impression he had no doubts, and part of that was his lack of hesitation. Even during a talk.

"I'm going to focus on the job for now, Tony. We'll see what happens after we're back. Cap out."

Tony sighed and turned the call off with simple parting words: "Good luck."

The other Avengers in the room seemed to have the same considerations that he did, regarding Tony and Peter. Bruce observed them, thoughtfully considering what their lives were like.

Vision had never wanted for anything. He was a walking computer turning into a man, year by painful year. Pinocchio without all the parts that made for a whimsical fairy tale, and all the parts that linked him to one of the Avenger's greatest villains. He was pretty much using the same OS. Married temporarily to a woman that went crazy and nearly destroyed the whole world a few times over, and eventually caused the near extinction of mutants, which in turn caused a great deal of strife and conflict between the world's superpowers. Political and otherwise.

A lot of close calls for the world to experience because of one robotic creation. Bruce wasn't even sure who was responsible for Vision and Ultron, with all the times that history had changed, and all the realities he had experienced. Was he even living in his original earth?

Did it matter? He had never seen a single place in all the multiverse where Bruce Banner mattered at all.

That was especially true in the places where he wasn't the Hulk.

The rest of the team, at least, was an assembly of problem-free powerhouses. Blue Marvel, Power Man, Cannonball, and Gravity. Each with a life worth living, each with an identity in the world, a name other people knew them for. Primarily knew them as.

They were nothing like him.

"Alright, gentleman. I've assembled this team to deal with the most world endangering threats. We'll be the least active of the teams formed under the new One Planet initiative, but in turn, none of us can say no once we get the call. That's what we signed up for."

"So how did we already get the call?" Blue Marvel asked, with a testy temper. "I only agreed to do this because those were the rules. How is something going to end the world and I don't know about it?"

"When is something not going to end the world?" Bruce asked, a bit upset. His mind was going to places he didn't like again. All around that table were people with accomplished lives. They had families, love, jobs, and history. Careers.

Bruce's resume ended on the day the gamma bomb exploded. How many years since he had reliably learned to control the Hulk? What had he accomplished since then?

"I know what you mean, but if we can help it, we'd like to keep the rate of last-minute world-saving ditch-effort hail-mary now-or-never moments to…well, zero." Tony smirked, a bit arrogant, as ever. "We want to try and stop the world ending plans while they're still in the preparation phase. Crack those eggs before they hatch."

"Nice," Cannonball said, holding his arms crossed. "I hear that. Get ahead of them, right?"

"I mean, hasn't that always been the ideal thing to do? Or have we been ignoring these plans on purpose so that we can look cooler?"

Bruce glanced over at Gravity, the youngest in the room by far, though that wasn't saying much. He was about Spider-man's age, for sure. He seemed level-headed.

"We'll have our chance to 'look cool,'" Tony said, "but let's leave that to the other teams. Let's skip the small talk, shall we?"

Tony was wearing his armor, but the helmet was off as was customary when they were outside of a battle. He waved his hands and holograms moved about, manifesting a bunch of screens which each had a different feed. It was all about an organization called "K.I.A".

"So when a momma A.I.M and a papa Hydra decide they love each other very much, and hate everything else that much more, they form whatever K.I.A. is supposed to stand for."

"We dunno what the letters mean?" Power Man scoffed, smirking at Blue Marvel. "Promising." Blue Marvel scowled back, perplexed that the stranger would act like his buddy, but the reaction went ignored.

"Bruce, I am detecting some troubling synaptic data coming from you. Are you alright?"

Everyone looked at Vision, and then at him. Bruce realized he had been glaring at the holograms while actually thinking about his worth to others and his place in the universe. He was beyond uninterested in whatever danger this new group of people posed. After having gone through so much, and with the team clearly being miles more powerful than anything an army could contend with, he was mostly bored.

Yet, he turned to look at Vision with some protest. "You're scanning my brain activity?"

"It is, I mean, it's mainly a safety precaution, Bruce."

He frowned, saddened by the distrust. "I'm pretty sure we're fine, Vision. Hulk isn't anything to be afraid of, he's more than proved he's as much of a hero as a man can be."

Bruce glanced over at Tony, and he was smiling, giving a bit of an encouraging nod.

That was supposed to be encouraging. The Hulk was as much of a hero as anybody else. A member of the Avengers.

Not Bruce Banner.

"K.I.A. have been stock piling nukes over the past two or three years. We have official permission from the U.N security council to…"

Betty was gone. Her father was no longer after him - nobody was - and yet Bruce lived the life of a briefcase. No different than any of those nukes they were worried about. That was him. His skills were useless. His intellect irrelevant. His life non-existent.

He scanned the room. Nobody saw Bruce there, they only saw the Hulk in his scabbard. Bruce's only value was as a trigger.

"I need a life," he whispered, massaging his face with both hands.

"What was that, Bruce?" Tony asked.

Bruce looked at them, only really feeling any camaraderie with Tony, and even that was a bit debatable. His temper flared - that was how much he didn't want the confrontation - but Bruce was very practiced with it. Vision still shifted in his seat, though.

"Yes, I'm upset, Vision," Bruce said, not angry, just tired. "Humans get upset, that doesn't make me a monster."

"I said no such thing," he said, with his ever-inquisitive tone of voice. Vision was perpetually analyzing interactions to improve his capacity for empathy.

"Why are you upset, Bruce?"

Bruce shrugged, uncomfortable. Then he raised his hands and just said it. "I want a lab."

They all looked at him oddly.

"What?"

"I want a lab. I think…I can do more for people than punch whatever mama A.I.M and papa Hydra came up with."

Tony was a bit flabbergasted. He looked around, gesturing to indicate that they were in the middle of something, about to start a new mission that was far more important than whatever he was on about. Despite what people think, though, Tony Stark knew how to deal with people.

"Maybe let's table that for after this mission, hm?"

Expectedly, he turned his face around to continue the briefing. Bruce clicked his tongue, knowing what would happen. People really forgot how smart he was, it was frankly the thing that mostly got on his nerves.

"That's fine," Bruce said, standing up. "Call me whenever you're back, and we'll talk."

"What?"

Bruce just walked out of the meeting room. One of his would be team members was laughing, but he felt that it wasn't at him. Just the situation was really silly. He knew that, but for the life of him, it was either now or never.

That wasn't strictly true. A lot of those moments had crept up along his years as Hulk, it was more like now or next time, only next time might not come.

No, that was the day. He wanted a life. Bruce wanted to exist properly, as a man living in his country, with other people.

Bruce Banner wanted to be more than the bomb that nearly killed him.

* * *

 ** _Part End: Thank you for reading, please consider leaving a review if you have the time._**

 _Can Bruce Banner be more than a bomb? Does anyone else even want him to? Find out next part when we feature the Black Widow and She-Hulk.  
_


	2. Independence

_**Disclaimer: Goes without saying but I do not own Bruce Banner nor the Hulk nor any other Marvel character herein included. They're the properties of the original creators as dictated by official documents, whom you can find out more about in Wikipedia or something. Stan Lee, Marvel Comics, etc.**_

 _ **Tuan aka The Abysmal as well as the plot related to them, the monsters and the military, are original by me, but they're still set in the Marvel Universe so I still hold no rights to them.**_

 _ **Rating: T for a bit of violence. I censor profanity like they would in a comic, if I ever use it.**_

 _ **(This story happens in the same timeline/universe as**_ _ **Spider-Man: Repulse**_ _ **, but it's self contained.)**_

* * *

 **PART 2:** Independence

Bruce Banner stretched, smiling down at his computer. He looked aside at his second screen, at the notes he had written while walking back to his dorms.

"Two more patents submissions. Then I need to find a place for a lab."

Living at Avengers headquarters was comfortable but, in all honesty, demeaning. He was one of the very few members who did. In return, however, he had managed to accumulate a good sum of money.

He spent the thirty minutes it took him to get back to the mansion taking quick notes on all the patents he could register for development. It was taking a lot longer to actually go through the process, though.

"Man, this is a pain. Maybe I should just focus on a small group?"

Shrugging, he continued. Bruce wasn't an experienced businessman but there was a lot about being an inventor that he did know. From observation, from listening, from his life before the gamma bomb. Because yes, there had been such a thing.

The plan was to register a bunch of patents: great, fantastic patents. By doing that, Bruce would gain the attention of investors before he even went looking for them. Plus, the whole process took around a year, so the sooner he got the paperwork done with, the better.

After he was satisfied with what he accomplished there, he sought to find a place he could buy outside Manhattan Island. He could only afford to rent if it was inside it. Still, he wanted to be close enough that he could drive in for meetings.

There would be a lot of meetings.

Bruce was excited about the prospect, with his only real doubt concerning which invention to first invest in.

"Equipment. I have to look at equipment, too." Bruce smiled widely. "Should I make the lab part of my home? I think that would be a bad idea."

A knock on the door. Part of him thought it would be Tony, but he knew that while the man was stubborn, he didn't have time to pursue that stubbornness through to the end. Despite all appearances to the contrary, he was a responsible man, and a mission was a mission. Hence, he had let Peter go. And he had also let Bruce go.

"Natasha?"

"Hey, Bruce." The Black Widow gave him a bit of a smirk as a greeting. "Heard you benched yourself."

Bruce rolled his eyes and walked back, allowing her space to come in after him. "He asked you to change my mind?"

"I don't really care what he wants," she said, looking aside and around at his room. It was notoriously rare for the Black Widow to ever rest her eyes on anything, and that was mainly because she was constantly scanning her environment for the purpose of situational awareness. It was a reflexive, deeply passive behavior. "I'm just wondering if you're okay."

"See?" Bruce chuckled. "The fact you think there's something wrong because I'm not doing what Tony tells me to do is a big part of it. Come here, look at this."

The Black Widow stepped forward, again scanning the gadgetry for signs of malfunction or dangerous modification. After dealing with mind controls a few times, the ultimate spy loses the ability to truly trust any situation.

She winced at the computer with displeasure. "Is that a government website?"

"Third party, but yes," Bruce said, a bit excited. "I'm submitting patent registrations for approval. This is what I've decided, you know? It's been a great many years letting the Hulk be all that he could be, and meanwhile, my aspirations are completely left by the wayside. Well," he shrugged. "The time's now. I'm going to have my own lab. Maybe eventually, I'll have my own crew. My own inventions, my own research."

"Hm," she glanced sideways at him, teasing him with another smirk. "And the big guy's happy with that?"

Bruce shrugged. "It can't be all about him. I need a life too. I want people to know who I am, in more than one way," he said, meaningfully. "I worked really hard for a really long time to become someone who could do that."

"Well, there's no doubt you did become that someone. I kind of envy you, to be honest, sitting a few of these out. This new approach to team rosters has put me pretty far away from the important missions."

"I thought you were with cap?" Bruce asked.

"What? No, that would be even worse, he's in the rooky squad. I'm in the PR squad," she said, glancing aside exasperated. "The team of X-Men and Avengers? Humans and mutants together. The squad's been put really…I don't know, I feel we're jack of all trades, master of none."

"Yeah, lot of people are around, now. Lots of teams. I didn't know half the people on mine," Bruce said, typing away at the forms in front of him. "Well, more than half. Still, it's funny to me how you pretend that it'll be boring. I give it two weeks before your team has the fate of the entire world on their shoulders."

Natasha chuckled and started walking off. "Well, now I know the big guy's on call in case that happens. I get first dibs at reinforcements, right?"

"Of course, Natasha," Bruce said, chasing after her in reflex, but staying in his seat. "Heading off, already? How many missions is Tony sending people on?"

"What do you think?" She asked, winking at him with a back glance. It was a good thing he was well practiced on keeping his eyes leveled and above - not that it was hard with how beautiful she was. "Not enough, as always. Be seeing you, Bruce."

Bruce shook his head. Maybe once he stabilized his life, he could finally invite Natasha out for a drink or something. Talk like normal humans.

He sensed mocking from inside, a playful suggestion that Bruce was hoping for much more than a drink.

 _Shut up,_ he thought, scoffing in amusement, and continued his online busywork.

Patents were registered, and three property viewings were scheduled. He also bookmarked webpages for a lot of lab equipment that he would need. Planning that alone was already providing a lot of stimuli to his brain, which was a familiar and heartily welcomed sensation. He couldn't wait to actually meet with the problems that his ideas would pose. For the struggle to overcome them.

Packing his laptop so he could work while commuting, Bruce walked out and got in the taxi. He hesitated, catching sight of the Avengers calling card. He considered leaving it behind, but something inside him tugged at him to take it with him, just in case.

Bruce shrugged and rolled his eyes amiably, figuring it was a nice enough compromise with the Hulk.

"Only if it's level orange or worse, though," Banner said to himself, and the one inside him. "Anything below that doesn't really need the world's strongest."

The Hulk agreed, Banner sensed.

While on the way to his first appointment, Bruce couldn't help but remark upon how much things had changed since the first time the bomb had gone off. Fear confused for rage, anger as uncontrolled as his understanding of himself. There was a time where the Hulk would be raging to come out, terrified of dying out forever. At the slightest change in moods, at the smallest opening created by Bruce's nervous system, the Hulk would come out with unmatched desperation.

And the Hulk knew what would happen if he calmed down, that he might die forever, so he went off. Looking to be mad and angry. It was an intellect without knowledge or wisdom, learning about the world like a baby would. Learning about people. Grasping for understanding in the only place it could - Banner's own mind - while being deathly afraid of looking too deeply and ceding control. Meanwhile, the Hulk's penchant for heroism and Bruce's own, he hoped, would continue to trump the fear and anger.

Then Sakaar had happened, and everything that it had entailed. Living on that planet, and everything they experienced there, changed the entire dynamic of the situation. Of their life together.

Bruce could now ride the Manhattan subway without fear. There had been a time when he had been convinced he would never be able to do that safely.

Well, safely for everyone else.

Most of his appointments did not go well. As the day continued to develop quite fruitlessly, tension began to mount, and his nerves to compound. He had forgotten that had been the real reason why he had given up on making a life for himself and accepted to live comfortably at the Avengers mansion.

Life was frustrating.

Still, Bruce found a flat he didn't really like but could live with, and the same could be said for a studio apartment he would be using as an office. By the time the Sun began to dawn, he didn't even want to think about how troublesome it would be to get most of the equipment he needed.

Permits were required for nearly all of it, and those would take days, perhaps weeks to approve. He was really craving for a problem he could just punch into nothingness.

"We really are the same person," Bruce said, shaking his head. Different personalities but the same individual. One mind, different manifestations. That was the key to what Bruce had to learn, and the Hulk as well.

"Well, tomorrow's another day. Let's get some research down, figure out some of the numbers. I don't need more than this laptop for that."

And so did Bruce type away the night.

* * *

 ** _Part End: Thank you for reading, please consider leaving a review if you have the time._**

 _He's really committing to this normal life thing, but will others really allow him to do that? Next part, we introduce She-Hulk._


	3. Cousins

_**Disclaimer: Goes without saying but I do not own Bruce Banner nor the Hulk nor any other Marvel character herein included. They're the properties of the original creators as dictated by official documents, whom you can find out more about in Wikipedia or something. Stan Lee, Marvel Comics, etc.**_

 _ **Tuan aka The Abysmal as well as the plot related to them, the monsters and the military, are original by me, but they're still set in the Marvel Universe so I still hold no rights to them.**_

 _ **Rating: T for a bit of violence. I censor profanity like they would in a comic, if I ever use it.**_

 _ **(This story happens in the same timeline/universe as**_ _ **Spider-Man: Repulse**_ _ **, but it's self contained.)**_

* * *

 **PART 2:** Independence

Bruce was in the middle of completely forgetting to have lunch when someone knocked. He was in a hotel, where he would stay for a couple of days while he waited for his new apartment to become available. He stood up and went to open the door.

The stark green hue instantly revealed who was visiting. It was his cousin.

"Jen," Bruce greeted, raising an eyebrow.

"Hey, Bruce. Long time no see."

Bruce raised the other eyebrow. "Has it?" He glanced up in thought, but she gave him a light tap on the shoulder, which nearly dislodged it.

"Ow!"

"Ha," she smiled wide, "I'm still getting used to this self-control of yours. Pretty amazing."

Massaging his shoulder, Bruce walked back to his chair. "Thank you, I guess. What're you doing here?"

"Visiting my cousin! Can't a concerned adult visit her favorite cousin?"

Bruce glanced at her suspiciously. She had shown up in a hotel he had checked into the very next day after he refused to do what Tony told him to. That was suspicious to say the least.

"Did Tony really ask you to talk to me?" Bruce asked.

Jennifer stuck out her tongue, playfully, and Bruce rolled his eyes. "Seriously. Tony needs a therapist, he clearly has control issues."

"Stark's just worried, is all. Well, I guess I am too, somewhat. What is it you're doing, exactly?"

Bruce lifted his arms in mild frustration. He slapped his hands onto his knees and glared at her questioningly. She smirked, unintentionally flexing her hulkified muscles. The poor woman barely fit inside the hotel room, she had to be a bit slumped if she wanted to stand.

"What?" She asked, amused.

"How's your practice doing, Jen? Any good clients lately?"

Jennifer frowned, caught a bit off guard by the change of topic. "It's fine. Competition's getting hard, there's a lot of lawyers in Manhattan, but nothing I can't handle."

"Should be possible with your reputation, right?"

Jennifer opened her eyes in realization and chuckled. Bruce opened his arms, welcoming her to speak on his behalf.

"There's more to you than the Hulk," she said, grinning apologetically, and Bruce clapped once and then pointed at her. "You want a career of your own."

Bruce nodded, smiling at her, and then tilted his head sideways, urging her to continue. "Ladies and gentleman, Jennifer Walters is on an absolute roll. However, will she go for the hat-trick?"

Jennifer held onto her waist and rolled her eyes, and then looked at him condescendingly.

"And Stark's not your boss."

Again, Bruce clapped once and then pointed at her victoriously. "Dear members of the audience, Jennifer once again proves her mettle against-"

"Alright, alright, stop making fun of me. I just want to know that you're alright."

"Never better," Bruce said, but instantly, he thought of something she could actually help him with. "Actually, you're a lawyer, right?" Jennifer scoffed, and Bruce waved the deflection aside. "I'm having trouble figuring out the permits for some lab equipment, would you be able to help me with that?"

"No," she said instantly, almost insulted. "I don't do that kind of work anymore, I hired someone to do it for me."

Bruce opened his eyes wide, pleadingly, and she rolled hers.

"Fine. Send me the details by e-mail, I'll take care of it. Or rather, I'll have my guy take care of it."

Bruce brought his hands together gratefully, and excited. "Great! The patents were already really boring. I thought this would be a lot more fun, but there's a lot of parts to this that aren't fun. I'd forgotten about that."

"That's why you began working for the military," she recollected, watching him with some amusement. "They're good at paperwork."

"Yes, when it comes to their science departments, it's about the only part with any decent oversight." Bruce shook his head, he didn't want his mind anywhere near that experience, and what it had led to. "But I don't want to think about that. You want to grab some lunch?"

Jennifer flinched, caught off guard. "Seriously?"

"Yeah? Why? Have you had lunch?" He asked.

"I mean, no," she said, uncertainly.

"Alright, then let's have lunch," Bruce said, happily walking to get his coat.

"It's just…are you sure you're alright? I'm not sure we've ever had a meal like that, not outside of the eventual thanksgiving?" She pointed out, slightly perplexed but mostly still amused.

Bruce smiled, putting on his jacket. It felt great to have all the permits taken care of - that was a huge load off.

"Yes, Jen, I haven't done a lot of things that I want to do." He paused at the door and nodded, likely with an expression that was a bit too meaningful. "That's the point."

Jennifer laughed, and she laughed hard. She hugged her sides and bent over a little bit in a fit of laughter.

"That was so cheesy, what are you doing?!" Giggling, she walked forward and slapped him across the back, sending him skipping his steps right out the door. "I'm liking it, though. I hope the future's all you're hoping it to be, cousin."

"Can I answer that with another dramatic one-liner?" He asked, entertained.

"No," she said, pointing at him. "Stop that."

* * *

 ** _Part End: Thank you for reading, please consider leaving a review if you have the time._**

Alright, I hope you've had a good time with things going well, because next chapter, things take the turn you've been waiting for. Featuring S.H.I.E.L.D.


	4. The Copycat

_**Disclaimer: Goes without saying but I do not own Bruce Banner nor the Hulk nor any other Marvel character herein included. They're the properties of the original creators as dictated by official documents, whom you can find out more about in Wikipedia or something. Stan Lee, Marvel Comics, etc.**_

 _ **Tuan aka The Abysmal as well as the plot related to them, the monsters and the military, are original by me, but they're still set in the Marvel Universe so I still hold no rights to them.**_

 _ **Rating: T for a bit of violence. I censor profanity like they would in a comic, if I ever use it.**_

 _ **(This story happens in the same timeline/universe as Spider-Man: Repulse, but it's self contained.)**_

* * *

 **PART 3:** The Copycat

Bruce hadn't planned to eat with his young cousin Jennifer. Well, young relative to his own age.

The lunch didn't go as well as a movie would have it go in the sense that they didn't suddenly spend the entire afternoon talking about their lives, their adventures, their thoughts, and getting closer. In actual fact, she couldn't wait to get back to work, and he felt the same way. Conversation grew stale fast, and while still amiable, they brought their time together to an end after only half an hour.

Leaving, Bruce went to make more calls and talk to more people who didn't like what they were doing and never felt like making it easier for others; people under contract with third-party companies to act middle-man between clients seeking services or resources and the actual people who offered said services and resources.

Being an adult was definitely more taxing than he remembered, which was probably why Tony just hired people to do everything for him, and why most of the Avengers used the third-party in-between people that Tony hired to deal with their own stuff.

But he couldn't go to Tony, now. Having to apologize for what happened every time the Hulk awakened had shredded his dignity, but ever since he came back to earth, that was no longer the case. Bruce Banner, the Hulk, neither of them felt any need to justify themselves to any of the heroes that had lied to them and sent them to their deaths. Giving them peace already gave Bruce the moral upper hand.

 _We're our own man,_ Bruce thought, immediately wincing. _I'm. I'm my own…oh never mind._

However, he should have known better than to think he could really go for a normal adventure. The sort of adventure highly driven, highly capable people have the ability to undertake. As much he might have been all of that - that's what he wanted to figure out once and for all - he was also part of a very special group of people.

When he was grabbing an afternoon snack at a café, Bruce caught sight of a newspaper. It was reporting on some breaking news straight out of Vietnam, and that was already the weird part. An American newspaper reporting on Southeast Asia? But then, the news was of a Hulk sighting.

Scowling, Bruce glanced back in the direction of his hotel room. _I'm going to go back and find the calling card's been beeping all day, aren't I?_

Wincing, Bruce did some calculations and estimates. It was likely that S.H.I.E.L.D. was already looking for him. It upset him that that was the case. After all, how many times in the past had some pretender shown up? It was predictable how things would go, at this point.

 _Maybe they just want me to help, but even then, they'll be looking for me._

Just then, the sound of helicopter rotors crept into being, and Bruce could only shrug. He sensed the Hulk laughing, amused. Bruce stood up and went next to the person with the newspaper, figuring it would be better to go into that conversation with an idea of what was going on.

"Excuse me, may I look at this story for a minute?"

"Hm?" The woman looked over at him and smiled, clearly assuming he was making some kind of move on her. She seemed to appreciate it, so he didn't correct it. "Of course, hi, my name's Theresa."

"Bruce," he greeted, leaning in to see the picture and catch some key sentences, so he could piece together which of the copies was causing the commotion. Hopefully, it wasn't Abomination. He hated fighting the Abomination, and he would have to.

The Hulk felt otherwise, feeling as always that few others could match up to his strength. That said, Abomination was still a fun challenge. Bruce thought it put the surroundings in danger, but the Hulk disregarded that notion, confident that he had become practiced in taking fights to safe environments.

In any case, the helicopter was landing, and the picture did not look like any of the copies that they had dealt with in the past. In truth, it really did look very much like the Hulk. Down to the haircut, which was always the best way to tell the copies apart. It was definitely not the red hulk, not the grey, not the Abomination, not Hulkling, not any of them. Was it an alien trying to set him up? Why? Was it a new one? Had someone done a new one? Looking closer, there was actually a difference to the hair, in comparison to what it currently would be. A long time ago, though, Bruce had neglected to cut his hair short, letting it grow long and wild, and that was exactly what the picture was showing.

Bruce's brain was running fast, in a state of engagement that usually had the Hulk stepping back and out of the way. It was weird how Bruce had come to visualize all these subconscious interactions.

Then, the door finally opened. "Banner."

Theresa opened her eyes at him, surprised. "Bru…Bruce Banner. You're the-"

"Thank you, Theresa," Bruce said, standing up. "Have yourself a nice day."

The two agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. were staring right at him. Their guns were down, but the safety was off, but the stun rounds were on. That's how most of his relationships went, really: very grey and full of pros and cons that all mingled with the inability to really trust that the Hulk wouldn't go crazy.

The Hulk, of course, protested at that. He had never gone crazy, from his point of view. Bruce left that without a response and showed his hands to the officers.

"I've been here all day today and yesterday. I got a bunch of call logs to confirm it, I assumed you people were keeping track?"

The girl soldier of the pair, looking unimpressed, spoke up first. "We're not the ones you talk to, Mr. Banner. Please come with us."

"Doctor," Bruce corrected, wincing apologetically. "Doctor Banner, please. I worked very hard to get that."

The short-haired girl lifted an eyebrow and shrugged. Bruce had the impression that he knew her, but couldn't put his finger on how. However, her demeanor and lack of a helmet indicated she had some kind of supernatural ability of her own. She wasn't as intimidated as her partner, who was looking around like someone who was planning on how to evacuate everyone should the Hulk wake up.

The Hulk, of course, protested at this. He had never hurt anyone innocent. Bruce left that without a reply as well. Their connection had greatly improved when compared to when the Hulk was first born, but the concept of empathy, considering other people's opinions, was still lost on him. He couldn't differentiate between Bruce's understanding of someone's opinion and his own.

"Sure," she said, "please come with us, Doctor Banner."

"Of course."

Bruce was already deciphering the many things that were going to happen next. Surely, it would be easy enough to prove that he wasn't responsible for whatever happened in Vietnam.

On the other hand, could he really say that about anything related to gamma radiation? The bomb was his invention. His creation. Everything related to it was his responsibility, as many people were keen to remind him.

The Hulk disagreed, and quiet honestly, so did Bruce. He had felt like that in the past, but time had changed his mind. A man fashions a knife, and yet he is not responsible if it is used to cut someone's throat. Even more so if he did not mean to fashion that knife in the first place.

Bruce sensed the Hulk objected to being regarded as a common weapon, and he could but shrug inside his mind. That was how everyone saw them, unfortunately.

Still, the fact remained that no, he had no responsibility for someone seeking out all his buried research and trying to replicate the process that was such a categorical and catastrophic mistake.

 _Even if it had one good outcome,_ Bruce added, for the sake of his other self. The Hulk had balanced out the scales, as far as Bruce could do the math. He had been more of a good thing than otherwise by a large margin.

"Doctor Banner," someone greeted, and the man snapped out of his thoughts and found himself in a room. Two women were in front of him, the one from before was holding her arms on her waist, with one of the hands resting on top of the pistol holster. The other was holding her arms crossed in front of her. That agent of S.H.I.E.L.D, he knew.

"Maria," Bruce greeted.

"Colonel Hill, please, Doctor Banner. I worked very hard to get that."

Bruce chuckled at that, nervously, and nodded. Maria Hill was like an airport officer, there was no being informal with her, let alone humorous.

"I apologize," he said simply.

"No, we haven't been tracking your calls. But I believe your account since you don't have a history of lying about your transformations."

Bruce smiled to try and appease the unappeasable. "As in I never did it?"

She squinted her eyes at the unnecessary comment, and he gulped, lifting his hands defensively. "Sorry," he said simply.

* * *

 ** _Part End: Thank you for reading, please consider leaving a review if you have the time. I can't answer some types of review for some reason so I'll say it here: Thank you for the kind words, I'm really glad you're enjoying it._**

Is Bruce in trouble? Does Hulk care? Find out in the next part when Hill tries to recruit Bruce, see how he gets out of it, and why.


	5. An Unconcerned Civilian

_**Disclaimer: Goes without saying but I do not own Bruce Banner nor the Hulk nor any other Marvel character herein included. They're the properties of the original creators as dictated by official documents, whom you can find out more about in Wikipedia or something. Stan Lee, Marvel Comics, etc.**_

 _ **Tuan aka The Abysmal as well as the plot related to them, the monsters and the military, are original by me, but they're still set in the Marvel Universe so I still hold no rights to them.**_

 _ **Rating: T for a bit of violence. I censor profanity like they would in a comic, if I ever use it.**_

* * *

 **PART 5:** An Unconcerned Civilian

Say one thing for having the Hulk inside him and always raring to go, it gave Bruce confidence. It used to make him terrified, and as such, he would spend most of every interaction trying to feebly disarm any possibility for conflict. Any psychologist will tell you that's the worst a person can do, and the Hulk especially frowned upon cowardice. It just made him want to come out all that more.

As such, Bruce held his hands in his pockets and beat Hill to the punch.

"No."

Colonel Hill raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"I'm not helping you. I got stuff going on that I can't really abandon. Responsibilities," he said, still a bit hesitantly since the Colonel was a bit intimidating.

"Bruce, we got a hulk on the loose and—"

"The Hulk's right here," Bruce said, and while he didn't want to interrupt her, it was better than allowing Hulk's offense to metastasize. "And he's staying here."

"Look," Maria called, and paused. She nearly stayed still, maintaining both her poise and facial expression, and yet, Bruce suddenly became aware of how surrounded he was. "Obviously, I don't know what's going on with you, but it doesn't hurt to take a day off and consult us about this issue so we can get this dealt with as fast as possible. Is what you have to do really more important than this, Bruce?"

Bruce did not take his hands out of his pockets and stayed relaxed. That confidence was shared with the Hulk whom, despite wanting to fight this new menace, agreed with not being someone else's attack dog. They both knew that's what they would turn out doing, in the end.

"Yes. Because that doesn't really concern me, does it? It's not my responsibility. But I got a couple of responsibilities that I'll be skipping out on if I go with you. Meetings to go to, people I need to trust me and stuff. That kind of thing."

Hill uncrossed her arms in slight frustration, and whether she intended to or not, motivated the soldiers surrounding them to shuffle into battle-ready stances. In response, Bruce took his hands out of his pockets and straightened his back.

"Whoah!" Hill instantly spread out her hands. "Let's take it easy, here. I will, under no circumstances, force you to help us, Bruce."

Bruce smiled but did not pocket his hands. "That's good. I hear your funding isn't what it used to be, I don't think you want to trash such a nice airship as this," he said, looking around, and sensed the Hulk appreciated the attitude. He could only hope his bluster was believable, because he knew fairly well she would never have come for him if she didn't have at least five plans to take him down. In the end, though, the Hulk always won. Bruce was focusing on that.

Hill grabbed at her waist with her hands and shook her head in confusion.

"Who took a dump in your shoe, Bruce? Why're you so belligerent? I want your help. To be honest, we kind of need it if we want to take care of this and do a good job of it. How can you say it doesn't concern you? It's a Hulk. Gamma bomb? You made it."

Bruce frowned, kind of painfully, but he was really not about to give up on his independence one day into it.

"I'm sick of that, alright? I never kept any of that research, and I've gone out of my way to destroy every piece of it that I can get my hands on. But you keep salvaging it, and then losing it, and on and on."

"We?" She asked, flinching in insult.

"It was a military weapon being developed in the heart of the United States," Bruce pointed out, desperately. He slapped the back of his hand onto a palm, like a teacher enunciating the laws of physics. "It was a colossal disaster and, like I said, I've destroyed every piece of it I ever saw. Why is it resurfacing in South Asia all these decades later?" He asked, gesturing out in a random direction. "That's **my** fault? Or does the fault lie with whoever kept it alive? And then let it leak? I dunno if that's you, but it sure wasn't me."

Maria scowled, as powerful people do when they are not in the right. It's a damn inconvenience for their pawns not to just do what they tell them to. In that, they were all the same. S.H.I.E.L.D, government, Tony, all of them.

Opening his arms, to illustrate his frustration, Bruce let his voice raise a little bit. It made everyone nervous, but holding it all in would be worse.

"I'm tired of being everyone's… punching bag and attack dog. I didn't create that problem, and maybe I'll help if nobody can really figure it out. But you know what? You people did alright with the real deal many times in the past, I think you'll do alright with the copycat."

Bruce straightened up, and he could sense Hill's soldiers were beyond tense, clearly not accustomed to her being talked to in that manner. But that's what everyone was constantly forgetting, wasn't it? Bruce wasn't a soldier, least of all theirs. He was a civilian, and civilians could be selfish assholes if they wanted to.

"May I go, Colonel?"

"Yes," she said simply, squinting her eyes in displeasure. "I thought you were a better man than this, Bruce."

He shrugged, knowing that letting her have the last word would be better for him. They were still S.H.I.E.L.D., they would probably attack him if he riled them up too much.

And then they'd be talking to the Hulk for not long at all.

Still, even after all that bravado, he found himself considering the issue on his way back to his apartment. It was nice being approached by Hill rather than General Ross. He would have had him full of tranquilizer darts the moment he said no, and they wouldn't work, and then they would be chasing him across the whole state.

Bruce sighed, not really thinking back fondly to those days. He didn't know what the Hulk was, such that he wasn't even thinking about who he was. Every day was a terror to live, for him, and all those that he might hurt in his attempts to stay safe. After all, even the world's strongest had a hard time fighting the whole army of the United States without causing the loss of innocent life.

The Hulk reflected that the new one was likely going through the same thing, and Bruce considered that. Indeed, what footage he had seen was showing the copycat being chased down by military forces. Running and fighting very chaotically. Yes, he wasn't a weapon like the Abomination. Not a soldier like the Red Hulk. Not in control like Jen. From what little he had seen, Bruce had no doubt this person was just like them.

Bruce held his key in his door and frowned, feeling guilty.

Not only did the copycat have his country's military after him, but now he would also have S.H.I.E.L.D. And without Bruce telling her how to approach things peacefully, and the Hulk to handle the inevitable need to fight, Hill would resort to force all the faster.

"Ah…jeez. Come on, no." Bruce shoved the key in the hole and unlocked his door, but a lifetime of experience weighed on him. She might have said it for the sole purpose of manipulating his decision, but Hill had been right. He had insight nobody else had.

And the Hulk felt he was likely the only one who could beat the copycat with the least amount of collateral damage. Or as the Hulk regarded it, regrettable damage.

"Fine," Bruce admonished, locking the door. "But we're doing this on our own. I don't care what they say, it's always the same thing. When push comes to shove, and they have to stare those green eyes in the face, they always pull the trigger. So we're going to get to him before S.H.I.E.L.D. does."

The Hulk liked that idea and was looking forward to the fight even more if it was one versus one. That deflated Bruce somewhat since he didn't want the fight. But then, that was the dichotomy of their characters, and why they were perfect as the accumulated identity that was Bruce Banner, the Hulk.

Or the Hulk, Bruce Banner.

It really depended on his mood.

* * *

 ** _Part End: Thank you for reading, please consider leaving a review if you have the time. I can't answer some types of review for some reason so I'll say it here: Thank you for the kind words, I'm really glad you're enjoying it!_**

How about that final line? Made me chuckle.

Well that was quite the mood swing. Sometimes we're so busy holding our ground we really only think about things later, and then realize we should've been more affable. Anyways, next part, Bruce Banner is off to Vietnam of all places. Featuring the main OC for this story: the copycat Hulk.

 _(Reminder that this story happens in the same timeline/universe as Spider-Man: Repulse, but it's self contained like that one is)_


	6. The Tourist

_**Disclaimer: Goes without saying but I do not own Bruce Banner nor the Hulk nor any other Marvel character herein included. They're the properties of the original creators as dictated by official documents, whom you can find out more about in Wikipedia or something. Stan Lee, Marvel Comics, etc.**_

 _ **Tuan aka The Abysmal as well as the plot related to them, the monsters and the military, are original by me, but they're still set in the Marvel Universe so I still hold no rights to them.**_

 _ **Rating: T for a bit of violence. I censor profanity like they would in a comic, if I ever use it.**_

* * *

 **PART 5:** The Tourist

Bruce booked a flight to Vietnam and spent the trip on his small laptop researching the entire situation he was about to get involved in. He started by trying to find out if there was any information regarding the source of the copycat Hulk, but Vietnam was still saying it was the real thing, while U.S. officials maintained that it wasn't.

So he spent most of the time worrying about what really mattered: the sightings. Using map applications, and whatever photos he could put together, he drew up a few guesses of the locations that Bruce would have sought out for isolation and safety, in the past. It was something he and the Hulk had done a lot of, so he was confident he could predict the moves of this new person. He further confirmed that, much like Bruce in the past, this Vietnamese, if he really was Vietnamese, was not a soldier out of control but rather an experiment on the run.

That much was clear from what footage there was of the fights.

And in that, the new Hulk-wannabe was at a disadvantage. People would be hard-pressed to get a good picture of the Hulk back when they were running around scared and confused, let alone produce a myriad of high definition video streams from every point of view imaginable.

While he was at it, Bruce brushed up on his Vietnamese. His accent was terrible, and a lot of the vocabulary was probably more Chinese than it should be, but he wanted to be able to understand people well enough even if he couldn't speak with comparable mastery.

By the time he landed, Bruce already had cheap transportation planned out involving a bunch of bus rides. However, the very second one was canceled for the entire day, so he was forced to hitchhike his way out of Ho Chi Minh. He went far enough that cars turned into carts carrying grain and vegetables, which was when he knew it would be okay to take a nap.

He wasn't scared of being hurt, but he was scared of being robbed, and that's not something field workers were known for. Plus, they wouldn't be able to escape fast enough if they did try, nor have a crowd of people within which to hide.

Waking up, Bruce enjoyed a little more of the scenery and good weather before leaving that cart to stand by a bus stop for a few hours. He got into that bus and took a seat, and had to do a lot to keep himself calm in the midst of impatient people who were so late one of them shouted him off for making the bus stop for just that minute.

The bus was very full.

Right about the time the Hulk wanted to come out to tell everyone to shut up, Bruce got off and went back to hitchhiking. The Hulk didn't really appreciate that.

 _It might honestly be faster, all things considered,_ Bruce had posed as an argument.

But it really wasn't.

All and all, the map application had told him the trip could be made in eight hours, but it actually took him a day and a half to finally arrive near the small jungle he wanted to check out. It was located a good distance away from two public appearances of the copycat hulk.

Wearing his buttoned shirt, wearied sunglasses and with his pale skin turning red, Bruce just walked into the jungle. That prompted the couple that had given him a ride to plead for him not to commit suicide, with genuine concern.

"Life can still be good! Don't do this, American!"

Their English was better than his Vietnamese if he were to be honest, and still, he had just chuckled and thanked them before moving on.

"No concern, I not die," he hoped was what he said.

The people were nice, really, but conversation was very minimal because of him. It was not only because of the language difference but also because Bruce had fast fallen into the pleasure of thinking about his would-be inventions and research domains. Despite the massive delay, very few hours had actually been wasted.

The Hulk was beyond bored, but the expectation of a challenging brawl was keeping the big guy from getting too antsy. So into the jungle, they walked, casually munching on some canned tuna. Bruce had figured he'd need a bunch of fast, uncooked meals, so he had filled his large backpack with canned food. And drink, of course. Outside of that, he wasn't really worried about much at all, as far as the danger was concerned.

If something venomous bit him, it would hardly affect him. The radiation coursing his body took care of most threats to his health, and what it didn't address, was utterly pummeled if the Hulk were to take center stage. Threats more on the macro level worried him even less. Something like a tiger was no real threat to the Hulk, despite the beast's mighty power.

The Hulk appreciated that sentiment.

Bruce walked around the jungle, kind of following his instincts. Obviously, the details of the jungle hadn't been mapped, so he had to look for safe places by seeking them out. Like a good spot near rivers or waterfalls, for there was where a desperate man could get fish. Fish was the easiest to catch, and the least bloody of foods to deal with. On the other hand, there was the possibility that the man was used to a vegetarian diet, being from South Asia, and would therefore be more naturally inclined to think of that.

Bruce only thought of it when there was an absence of fish since he didn't really have the stomach to kill something like a bird or a rabbit with his bare hands.

Well, he hadn't back then.

In any case, rivers and waterfalls, a nice spot in a clearing where it was easier to spot incoming people or caves. Caves would always be his preferred place, seeing as he didn't have to worry about what would be inside. So Bruce looked for caves.

That was it, really. It was very anti-climactic. Despite the fact Bruce had scouted about four other such locations to visit, he suddenly got shouted at right in front of the second spot he checked, which was a cave. The voice was coming from inside.

"Who are you?! Go away!"

The voice yelled in the native language, and very fluently so. And it sounded surprisingly young, too. Bruce thought back to what he knew of the vocabulary. All the sweating was making it hard to think, but he managed to remember.

"No danger," Bruce said, with difficulty. "I want…hum…give. Provide? Assistance. I wish to assist?"

"Go away! Go away, or I will get mad! Then you'll be sorry," he said.

 _Well, that sounds familiar,_ Bruce thought, sensing the Hulk's amusement. "No need to get mad! Me help! Just help! Not with an army, I swear!"

Bruce felt like he was skewering the grammar, but there was no way to avoid it. Understanding it was one thing, speaking it was different. If only Natasha were there.

Then out came the young man, and he was young. Bruce didn't know how far into his teens the boy was, but he was short, and his voice went to a higher pitch. His clothes, which amounted to a ragged pair of pants, partly ripped open by the transformation, were all the signs Bruce needed to know this was the person in question. The copycat Hulk.

He hadn't expected a teenager, though. That was really bad.

"I said go! Who are you, white bastard? You're with them, aren't you?! WHY WON'T YOU LEAVE ME ALONE!"

"Not with them," Bruce said, holding his hands up to try and show he was defenseless, but the kid was paranoid. He was looking around, trying to find signs of an ambush.

"How did you find me?!"

"I uh…" it wasn't the time to sound uncertain, but his difficulty with the language was really making it difficult. "I make guess."

The boy turned a very angry eye at him, with his hair curtaining over the left one. _Oh boy…the kid's temperament is going very south very fast._

"Please be calm," Bruce pleaded, soothingly. "Stay calm."

The kid sniffed suspiciously, and his eyes turned to Bruce's backpack, and Bruce then noticed how the kid's teeth and mouth were dirty with the red from berries and fruit. He also had some kind of green stuck between his front teeth.

"I have food," Bruce said, enticingly. "I share."

But the kid scowled hard. "Again? You trick me again?!"

Bruce opened his eyes in realization. _Oh no, the people chasing him tried to feed him something bad. Tranquilizers or poison._

"No trick! Trust me!" Bruce said quickly.

Tears came to the poor kid's face, and he twisted, suffering a spasm. "WHY WON'T YOU LEAVE ME ALONE! LEAVE ME ALONE!"

"Please, I am Bruce. Bruce Bann-"

He got punched. His body set out flying, flipping through the air, beating against some trees. He was faintly aware of the transformation taking place, and it wasn't his. All he was experiencing was a lot of bones breaking.

The Hulk wanted to correct that. He was going to come out and pacify the kid the only way that was now available to them.

Bruce smiled, his face jolting with a green complexion as his body suffered its own spasm.

The Hulk would handle it the fun way.

* * *

 ** _Part End: Thank you for reading, please consider leaving a review if you have the time. I can't answer some types of review for some reason so I'll say it here: Thank you for the kind words, I'm really glad you're enjoying it!_**

Yeah! Next up, we hulk out versus the new green kid on the block. Don't miss it!

 _(Reminder that this story happens in the same timeline/universe as Spider-Man: Repulse, but it's self contained like that one is)_


	7. Experience and Heart

_**Disclaimer: Goes without saying but I do not own Bruce Banner nor the Hulk nor any other Marvel character herein included. They're the properties of the original creators as dictated by official documents, whom you can find out more about in Wikipedia or something. Stan Lee, Marvel Comics, etc.**_

 _ **Tuan aka The Abysmal as well as the plot related to them, the monsters and the military, are original by me, but they're still set in the Marvel Universe so I still hold no rights to them.**_

 _ **Rating: T for a bit of violence. I censor profanity like they would in a comic, if I ever use it.**_

* * *

 **PART 7:** Experience and Heart

Time to fight! Time for fun! Time to teach the kid about the strongest one there is!

Puny Banner was amused, the Hulk could sense it, as well as his proposition that they might go easy on their younger cousin. The Hulk didn't mind Puny Banner's input as much as he had before, now that it came as a suggestion instead of a terrified demand. It was a suggestion, and one which Banner knew very well was up to the Hulk to oblige or not. Gone were the days where Puny Banner would throw all of his will against the Hulk, making it hard to think and to fight.

His opponent was about the same size, the difference being the eyes, which were seemingly completely shut, and the hair, which was longer and darker. But the skin was green and the muscles mighty!

The Hulk stomped hard on the ground, sinking the floor a few inches, and took the punch that was thrown at him with the flat of his hand. The concussive force blew a strong wind around them, pushing leaves and branches to bend, and one of his opponent's eyes flicked open momentarily. Yelling, more punches were thrown, and the Hulk grunted as he took most of them in the torso.

Yells in a language that Hulk didn't understand followed after him as he was pushed back by the blows, his patience quickly wearing thin. Before it ran out, the Hulk managed to grab one of the fists properly. Immediately, he pulled his opponent close and rammed his other fist into his belly to the sound of a roar.

It was as if an explosion had occurred.

"Terrible fighter!" The Hulk yelled, pulling him to the side and then throwing a full swinging fist at his face. The wind jostled, and the body flew away, crashing through trees for a great distance.

Puny Banner once again suggested that he go easy, but nobody knew more about being Hulk than the Hulk, and the Hulk was not interested in only making the new boy angrier. So he immediately leaped to give chase.

The Hulk was no stranger to fighting. He had fought great beasts, but also many fakes pretending to be him. From his younger cousin to fish ears and also the red general who called him a monster for decades and chased him to the ends of the earth, when in the end, he just wanted to be like Hulk.

That part, the Hulk could understand. Who wouldn't want to be the Hulk? But the Hulk was the Hulk, the strongest one. No one else could be the Hulk.

Animals went silent and ran away. Insects fled the jungle altogether. Trees cracked and fell by the hundreds as the battle raged, and the two roared, exchanging blow after blow, getting angrier and angrier. The Hulk started to get annoyed by how durable this opponent was. He started to get really annoyed! One might even say: angry!

Like beasts, they tore into each other, and what the Hulk had in experience, his opponent had in tenacity. The boy just would not stay down, and would rarely even flinch no matter the kind of hurt the Hulk put into him. Their Eyes reddened, and with green blood all over each other, both fresh and dry, they kept hurting each other, and healing the hurt, and on and on, pushing each other beyond whatever limits others would expect of them

The Hulk was marginally aware of Puny Banner trying to get a thought in, but there was no time for that.

His opponent again screamed in a language the Hulk didn't understand, but he got the gist of it, so he bellowed right back. "No! Hulk is strongest there is!"

Finally, after a long time, the Hulk managed to land a sudden kick on his opponent's elbow, right after he had sunk his fist into a face-full of rock and dirt, having missed Hulk completely. With thunderous shock, the arm cracked broken, and the kid's eyes flipped wide open in shock.

A proper flinch.

"HULK!" The Hulk grappled him and pulled him against the broken arm, to worsen it and cause more pain, all while bringing his own arm around the boy's neck. "STRONGEST!"

The boy yelled in his foreign language, but that level of rage didn't need translation. Spittle came off his mouth, and he tried to bite onto Hulk's forearm, but no way would that work on his muscles. Or maybe it worked. There was so much blood and painful sensations that the Hulk had no idea whether the biting was working. It sure didn't stop him. It only made him madder.

"HULK!" he repeated, pulling the boy down to a really uncomfortable position. "STRONGEST!"

The boy shivered and trembled, and tried to jump, but the Hulk expertly shifted his weight around and kept him from getting free. "THERE IS!"

The Hulk proceeded to choke the boy out, to the sound of a bellow, for it took a huge amount of strength to succeed in what he was trying to do. So he bellowed, and roared, using it as fuel for his strength.

Part of him wanted to finish the fight properly. Grab a tree and sharpen it with his teeth and stake the bastard through the chest, but mostly, he was aware he was fighting a younger version of himself. Someone who didn't know what was happening or that the Hulk wasn't a true enemy. That part of him knew how bad he would feel later if he hurt his opponent for real.

And Puny Banner was reminding him of that, too.

"Hulk knows!" he yelled in protest, feeling the body giving its final spurts of strength. "Hulk not need to go all out! Hulk far stronger!"

He said it, but the Hulk was starkly aware of how evenly matched they had been. If it weren't for his fighting experience and the harmony with Puny Banner, it wouldn't have been so easy.

Banner doubted that it had been easy, but the Hulk blew his nose and pressured the neck further, waiting for the body to give in and transform back.

"Easy!" the Hulk said, ignoring the pains in his body, and the blood dripping over his left eye. "Hulk can fight boy all day!"

The Hulk felt the body in his arms starting to shrink, and so he took a breath, and instantly, the anger began deflating in him. He was tired.

They were getting old, Puny Banner emoted, amused. The Hulk growled, but damn it, he couldn't disagree. Only then did he notice it was raining. When had it started raining?

The Hulk took another breath and looked down, at the kid. He was so puny now, puny like Banner, which meant the fight was over.

The Hulk smiled through gritted, bloody teeth, and chuckled.

It was a good fight, Puny Banner thought, and the Hulk could see that he wanted to come back. And that was fine with the Hulk. What came next was boring and probably involved a lot of talking, which was annoying. Not something the Hulk liked, not at all.

The Hulk chuckled, gazing at the unconscious youth with some pride. It had really been a fun fight!

* * *

 ** _Part End: Thank you for reading, please consider leaving a review if you have the time. I can't answer some types of review for some reason so I'll say it here: Thank you for the kind words, I'm really glad you're enjoying it!_**

Haha, that was fun. Sorry that his English isn't as good as in the movies, and his intellect not as developed, but I think the movies really did go a bit too far. I like this style more :). Hopefully it's enjoyable for you as well.

Next part, Bruce and the young hulkling will have words, and lot will be revealed about what's going on. Who is the kid, how he became the Hulk, etc. Check back tomorrow!

 _(Reminder that this story happens in the same timeline/universe as Spider-Man: Repulse, but it's self contained like that one is)_


	8. Tutelage

_**Disclaimer: Goes without saying but I do not own Bruce Banner nor the Hulk nor any other Marvel character herein included. They're the properties of the original creators as dictated by official documents, whom you can find out more about in Wikipedia or something. Stan Lee, Marvel Comics, etc.**_

 _ **Tuan aka The Abysmal as well as the plot related to them, the monsters and the military, are original by me, but they're still set in the Marvel Universe so I still hold no rights to them.**_

 _ **Rating: T for a bit of violence. I censor profanity like they would in a comic, if I ever use it.**_

* * *

 **PART 8:** Tutelage

Bruce made sure the teenager woke up inside the cave in which he had been living for at least three days. He wanted to guarantee that the young man didn't feel threatened, so he was sitting with his back turned to him, holding his hands up to show that he was unarmed.

He heard the rustling, and then the spasm of fear, and then he heard the boy dragging himself back across the floor until his mind made sense of what had happened and what the situation was. As the quick and hardy breaths came through, Bruce knew the young man would be interpreting the few brief glimpses of memory that he could grasp from his time transformed. Bruce couldn't help but grimace, for that was by far the hardest thing to do; to be able to see through each other's eyes and remember what they went through.

Bruce decided to help him.

"I am Bruce Banner," he said, in broken Vietnamese. "The Hulk," he added in English.

"Hulk," the voice said, knowing the name. "You Hulk?"

Bruce smiled and shrugged.

"It's complicated. What are you called?"

"It is fine to speak in English," he said, impatiently, "I have bad accent, but I can understand."

"Oh, it's the same with me," Bruce said, letting his arms down, and glancing back helpfully. "So let's do that. What's your name?"

The kid twitched his nose in consideration, and felt at his neck, feeling it stifled.

"The Hulk choked you," Bruce explained. "It was the only way to transform you back, so please keep calm, now, okay?"

He nodded, and Bruce turned the whole way around, facing the copycat Hulk with an easy smile that he hoped looked genuine and trustworthy. "Why are you hiding your name?" He asked.

"That is how this all started," he said. "I gave my name to a stranger, and then they found me in my home. They killed my parents and took me."

"I am not with them," Bruce said, first of all, and he was still holding his hands halfway up. "But you need to tell me who they are and how I can find them."

Those eyes squinted with distrust, even if only one of them was visible through the fringe that his messy hair was still capable of forming.

"They will be coming for us soon. Our fight, it made too much chaos and mayhem," Bruce explained. "If there's one thing we don't like, and by we, I mean our counterparts, is for people to be prepared for us. Offense, defense, doesn't matter. If they're not ready, they'll never win."

"You want to go after them?" he asked, surprised. "I could never defeat them. They have a huge base and are very well armed. Very prepared for my attack. Even the government is afraid of them."

Bruce thought that was interesting. It was probably biased, but he had expected the government to be behind it all. "Well, you are new to this, and we have the element of surprise right now. Unless they have access to satellite surveillance that I'm not expecting, at which point it might be a tough fight, but then, that's what makes the Hulk happy."

The poor guy looked utterly perplexed, and his face twisted to show it. "What?"

Bruce chuckled, and finally slid his hands into his pockets.

"Let's take it slow. Like I said, I really am here to help. The Hulk and I have been around for a long while so I know what you're going through. But you need to trust me."

The suspicion had definitely softened, so again, Bruce asked. "What is your name?"

"Tuan," he said, defensively, and Bruce smiled widely.

"There we go, Tuan. Now, how should we call your counterpart?"

Tuan glanced aside, scratching at his arm uncomfortably. Bitterly.

"Monster," he said, and Bruce skipped a step in his direction, gravely calling his attention. Almost frightening him.

"Never," he said, meaningfully. "Never monster, Tuan. That is something I will teach you."

Tuan watched him doubtfully. The emotional scars were blatantly present in his facial expression, clearly discernible to even Bruce, who was as far from empathetic as someone could be. He wasn't good with people, but still, he had seen a lot of them. Witnessed a lot of interactions and reactions. The kid was going through what Bruce had gone through, so he drew on that.

"The Hulk was never a monster, he was a hero from the start, despite his faults. Despite my faults," he added. "And I'm sure your counterpart is as well."

Bruce sincerely hoped that that was true. "Right there, when I said that, you felt a shred of hope, right? From inside? It wasn't a possibility of relief - that is coming from you alone. I am talking about a despairing hope. Right? A despair to be free."

Tuan's eye opened wide in realization, and Bruce nodded meaningfully.

"Like I said, Tuan. I've walked in your shoes." He looked down and pointed, but his feet were bare, having ripped open through the shoe wear during the transformation. Bruce chuckled and motioned to his own naked feet. "And I ruined them, too."

When he looked up, he saw a shred of a smile on Tuan's lips, which quickly faded away. But still, seeing it gave Bruce a sensation that was not familiar at all. He tried to remember if he had ever felt that way, but really couldn't put a finger on it. His brain, fast as it was, reported that it was indeed new.

While Bruce was bad with people, he had gotten to be very good with his own mind and feelings. He had to if he was to live in harmony with the Hulk. So he knew what that feeling had been.

As Bruce exchanged a stare with Tuan, he realized it was the certainty that he could make a difference in Tuan's life on a level that he had never been able to, so far as other people were concerned. He realized he could be a tutor.

He realized he was seeing his young self in Tuan.

"I can you help you understand each other, and live in harmony doing whatever it is you wish to do. Control the rage and the fear."

"Get revenge?" Tuan asked, his voice a bit inflamed. Bruce winced. That was a bad idea, but he didn't have time to explain why, and he was sure he wouldn't be able to convince Tuan. Likewise, nobody would have been able to convince Bruce of otherwise, had he gone through the same thing.

The memory of Sakaar came to Bruce, and he gave the Hulk a mental nod in respectful mourning. _Exactly,_ he thought.

"Yes," Bruce said, thinking instead that the greatest revenge would be to truly prove he was stronger than those that had harmed him. By making a life for himself. Bruce would explain that at a later date. "The Hulk has been a blessing to the world, Tuan. I'm not saying you need to be that, but if you don't want to hurt people, I will help you with that. And if you want to hurt people, I will stop you. What I will not allow is for you to be used as a weapon. Or an attack dog."

That was near and dear to Bruce, and Tuan could tell by how he had sounded.

"So tell me where your captors are. Tell me everything you know about them." Bruce smiled and shrugged. "And let's let the Hulk handle them."

The Hulk grinned inside Bruce's heart, flourishing the little bit of confidence Bruce's statement had by a great, endless margin. Bruce's body straightened and gained poise, and Tuan's eye flickered with true hope.

Calmly, his hair wobbled in agreement. "Okay…I will trust you, Banner. For now."

* * *

 ** _Part End: Thank you for reading, please consider leaving a review if you have the time. I can't answer some types of review for some reason so I'll say it here: Thank you for the kind words, I'm really glad you're enjoying it!_**

And so begins a brand new type of relationship for the Hulk. In the next update, we find out all about Tuan as Bruce goes on the offensive.

 _(Reminder that this story happens in the same timeline/universe as Spider-Man: Repulse, but it's self contained like that one is)_


	9. Waking up the Beast

_**Disclaimer: Goes without saying but I do not own Bruce Banner nor the Hulk nor any other Marvel character herein included. They're the properties of the original creators as dictated by official documents, whom you can find out more about in Wikipedia or something. Stan Lee, Marvel Comics, etc.**_

 _ **Tuan aka The Abysmal as well as the plot related to them, the monsters and the military, are original by me, but they're still set in the Marvel Universe so I still hold no rights to them.**_

 _ **Rating: T for a bit of violence. I censor profanity like they would in a comic, if I ever use it.**_

* * *

 **PART 9:** Waking up the Beast

Bruce was sort of angry.

That wasn't saying much since he was always angry because the Hulk was always angry and so to fight that anger was to fight a tiring, losing battle. It was easier to be angry and not give in under the relative certainty that the time would come to do so.

That time always came around.

Both of them much preferred when it served some sort of purpose. With all of that said, Tuan's story was a pretty angering one. It began on the day when they followed him to his home and then killed his parents and took him, and when Tuan first mentioned it, Bruce had assumed that had happened recently.

In actual fact, Tuan was four years old at the time. He had spent all the years since living a life Logan would probably find familiar. Experiments, growing up alongside other kidnapped children, all of which regularly died away. As far as he knew.

Tuan had witnessed one of them transform, so that meant there was the possibility that there were more knock-off Hulks.

In any case, whether by accident or not, someone messed up on Tuan's medication. His counterpart was able to wake up and catch them by surprise, successfully fleeing. Tuan first tried to reach the police for help but was intercepted by his captors, and that was the first transformation.

The other two transformations happened when he tried again at other towns.

Tuan didn't even know the names of his captors. Whenever they talked, it was never with him, and by his descriptions, he was treated very much like a lab rat. Only even lab rats were sometimes treated well. Bruce had the impression that his captors really had no intention to keep Tuan around, but rather to learn how to iterate on the gamma experiment to produce a Hulk who was analogous to the Red Hulk or at least the Abomination. Perhaps they wanted to standardize the process, and mass produce copy cats.

If they did plan to weaponize Tuan, then they would have to implement some kind of mind-controlling device because Tuan hated them with a passion, and there was nothing nor no one they could use to blackmail him.

Bruce scowled hard, thinking how crazy it was that Tuan couldn't even read. He sensed the Hulk's anger growing, and guaranteed him that he had no intention to take the high road as far as these people were concerned.

What was he going to do? Call S.H.I.E.L.D? Call the Avengers? Tony? Who could he really trust to do what needed to be done? Who could he trust to utterly and completely destroy any remnants of the organization and its facility? All of their research and technology needed to not exist, and who could he trust to carry that out?

Only one person, whom Bruce sensed smirking within, pumped and ready to start smashing.

He had given Tuan strict instructions to stay in the cave and not leave until Bruce came to get him.

"What if you don't come?" Tuan had asked.

Bruce had shaken his head, helplessly smiling to the side. "If that were the least bit possible, I would have died a thousand times over. Still, fair enough. If I'm not back by dawn tomorrow, here." He gave the kid his Avengers card. "Do you feel this tiny button? Press it three times. Help will come."

 _If they're not too busy fighting off some galactic menace,_ Banner had thought, with a sigh. He could only hope Tuan would wait like he had asked him, but it wouldn't be the end of the world if he didn't.

Now, Bruce was at the edge of the jungle, looking ahead and up at a gathering of helicopters. They were flying his way.

"How long until they figure out it's us and not the kid?"

 _Pff,_ went the Hulk, or at least that's how Bruce interpreted the sensation. The big guy didn't care. It didn't matter to him, and why would it? While the Hulk could accept Bruce's thoughts about the disadvantage of charging into an ambush, and being entrapped, that was not what was happening. So why should he care how soon into the fight they realized that the real thing was coming for them?

The real thing _was_ there, coming for them. The strongest one there was, is, and always will be.

"Is it just me, or does this fight feel completely different? I'm really into it. I really want to help that kid."

It wasn't just him. The Hulk demanded they change at once, and Bruce shrugged. By his calculations, they could take out the choppers in about five minutes, and then they would need one or two hours to reach their base of operations, should Tuan's guess of their location be accurate.

"We should take one of them with us, just in case. Make them tell us exactly where the base is."

He felt the Hulk rolling his eyes in admonishment and smiled helplessly.

"Sorry. I just…I really don't want us to mess this up. With everything the kid's gone through, he has to be feeling incredibly anxious, not to mention scared. We can't mess this up for him."

The Hulk's impatience grew since they could already hear the helicopters loud and clear. Bruce felt that old familiar sensation that only had one interpretation.

 _Let me out!_

His fingers twitched, but he took a deep breath and contained it, without meaning to. It was a pure reflex, reaching out from his past instincts. Just then, a bullet shot through the air and hit him near the shoulder, throwing him back onto a bush."

"Augh!"

Bruce bounced off and landed on his hands, which were already green. "Sorry," he said, nervously chuckling before the incredibly strong emotion coming from the Hulk. He was angry beyond belief at Bruce's hesitation, which had gotten them shot.

"Force of habit," Bruce whispered, feeling his body stiffen with pain.

Bruce heard the bullet falling on the floor, having been pushed out by his growing musculature. He noticed he hadn't actually talked, they had already switched seats as far as their conscience was concerned. He watched, through Hulk's eyes, as he gained height all while taking more bullets. These did not blow him back, this time, but rather hit him like rocks, flattening and bouncing off, causing no more effect than a flinch.

The Hulk's mind roared, and so did his voice, and Bruce mentally sat back to enjoy the show.

 _Go to town, Hulk._

* * *

 ** _Part End: Thank you for reading, please consider leaving a review if you have the time. I can't answer some types of review for some reason so I'll say it here: Thank you for the kind words, I'm really glad you're enjoying it!_**

Next time, we see Hulk going to town! We find out more about this military organization that has done so much wrong to Tuan, but do we find out enough?


	10. Hulk Smash

_**Disclaimer: Goes without saying but I do not own Bruce Banner nor the Hulk nor any other Marvel character herein included. They're the properties of the original creators as dictated by official documents, whom you can find out more about in Wikipedia or something. Stan Lee, Marvel Comics, etc.**_

 _ **Tuan aka The Abysmal as well as the plot related to them, the monsters and the military, are original by me, but they're still set in the Marvel Universe so I still hold no rights to them.**_

 _ **Rating: T for a bit of violence. I censor profanity like they would in a comic, if I ever use it.**_

* * *

 **PART 10:** Hulk Smash

"That there?" The Hulk asked, and as always, he sounded like he didn't like saying words. That was because he didn't like saying words. Why couldn't people know things without words? Waste of time!  
Anyways. The soldier nodded like the coward that he was, and so Hulk finally put him to sleep with a slap of his finger. The eyes shut, and the body went limp, and the Hulk shook his head and dropped him. How puny and weak, these soldiers.  
Puny Banner felt like the Hulk should not underestimate them, especially now that he was about to assault their base. Now that they were likely expecting him.  
The Hulk answered with his favorite retort. He leaped into action, straight at the gate, letting loose a roar of challenge.  
Stand and fight, the Hulk communicated, landing near the gate. With one mighty punch, he brought it crashing down.  
Run and Hide, the Hulk emoted, opening his arms at the twenty soldiers inside as they opened fire.  
It makes no difference to the Hulk, he finished saying, by clapping his hands against the bullets and sleeping darts being fired at him. They were all pushed aside by the concussive force that went on to blow the soldiers away.  
The Hulk flexed his muscles, ejecting whatever darts and bullets had pierced the meat of his skin, and then jumped again.  
His rampage had begun. For Tuan, and the one that had put up a good fight, the Hulk roared and fought.  
The Hulk tore through trucks and other vehicles, unharmed by the explosions engulfing him.  
He charged through mortar fire and mines.  
The Hulk eventually met with an electrified room made of strong metal, and that made him flinch, but also made him angrier. Still, he caught on to Puny Banner's suggestion and shoved his fists down around his feet, ripping the floor apart in-between snarling. That cut the conduciveness of the electricity, after which he began digging down to the floor below.  
Rage carried him to elevator doors. He broke through the doors, ripped the cable apart, and then dove all the way down to land on top of the crashed elevator.  
The most important stuff would be all the way down, or so Puny Banner seemed to think. Banner was weak and cowardly, but if there was anything he could do right, it was thinking.  
The Hulk met with a row of blast doors, and those took a short while to get through. Long minutes. The longer it took, the more blows he needed to give, and the madder he got. And the madder he got, the stronger he got, and the less he could sense Puny Banner. The pain in his hands, and the tension in his muscles, and the thickness of his pumping veins, and the tightness in his tendons, and the heat of his blood. All continued to increase.  
Because of those puny, cowardly bastards! Hiding behind their metal doors so they can abuse the children and make them into rats and weapons!  
Roaring, the Hulk broke through the final blast door and got into a room, but the door he broke through closed again, with one sliding down from below. Gas started blowing into the room, quickly burning his eyes.  
From a great distance, and with a tiny voice, Puny Banner alerted the Hulk to the fact the gas would put him to sleep if he breathed in too much of it. So Puny Banner thought the Hulk wouldn't remember all the times he had fallen for that? Puny Banner was as annoying as he was weak!  
The Hulk blew with all his strength, pushing the gas away from him, and then jumped and punched open the vents, ripping them apart. Inside the second vent, though, was some sort of deformed little man, and that tiny creature hit him in the eyes with something.  
The Hulk fell back, tumbling across the ground in annoyance. Puny Banner yelled something, but the Hulk wasn't interested. With his one good eye, he trailed the ceiling, and then suddenly leaped at a part of it, shoving his hand through. He grabbed hold of the scampering thing and brought it out of the tubes to toss it at the wall.  
The creature bounced off and onto its four limbs, like a monkey. It was green, Hulk's kind of green, but had eyes of dark. Like those hole-digging rodents. With a screeching voice, it shrieked at the Hulk, threatening him.  
"I kill you!" it said, its rat-voice echoing. The Hulk raised the eyebrow over his scratched eye. The threat would be almost comical if the creature hadn't almost made him blind. Without ceremony, the Hulk rushed at it, grabbed around its whole body with only one hand, and smashed it against the floor.  
It whined and shrieked, but retained its conscience, so the Hulk smashed it again and again until its lights went out, and it started transforming. The Hulk waited and watched as it turned back into a child.  
The Hulk flinched at that, stepping back in shock. Then his eyes squinted and one of his fists clenched and stirred, and he realized that that was Banner's will coming through.  
But the Hulk agreed.  
"Absolutely incredible," a voice spoke, using speakers. The Hulk looked over and around, wondering if the speaker was anywhere near close. "You are without a doubt the strongest of your creations, Dr. Banner."  
The Hulk scowled and roared, insulted. "I AM HULK!"  
The voice chuckled, patronizingly.  
"I will admit, I was skeptical of your power and prowess. I wanted to be there to meet you, but I was compelled to leave by my more…experienced ally. I am to assume you have found Tuan, then?"  
"Come fight me!" The Hulk said, beyond sick and tired of words. He turned his head this and that way, looking for something to fight. For the source of the voice, and or those that follow it. "Coward! Weak! Puny man, come and fight me!"  
"I would've appreciated the opportunity to converse with Banner himself, but alas, that does seem out of the question. Still, I am told you can hear me, Doctor. Or that you will remember me? Either or."  
Roaring, the Hulk leaped at the door ahead and started attacking it.  
"I AM STRONGEST! YOU MAKE NO ONE STRONGER THAN HULK! NO ONE!"  
The voice sighed. "Alas, that is exactly the challenge, isn't it? In any case, I really thought I could stop you, but you are too incredible for words. As my ally said, the only way to truly prepare for the Hulk is to get out of his way. So here I am, already on my way out of this damp country. But rest assured, Dr. Banner. We will meet again."  
The door broke, and the Hulk charged forward, uninterested in a coward's words. A puny man who would boast from a position of safety and anonymity, and make threats on top of it? There was not a thing more disgusting in the world. No, in the universe!  
And the Hulk had seen a lot of the universe.  
"Or rather, we will meet properly," the voice continued, ignorant of the Hulk's impressions. "Best of luck with Tuan. The boy is a handful."  
The Hulk did not care. He was the strongest there was, and all this base was convinced of otherwise. It was monstrous, and it needed to be gone. No more. Usually, Banner would offer directions, but at that point, there was only one thing coming from Puny Banner's mind.  
Destroy it all.  
Angered by the voice's boasts. Maddened by the ridiculous attempts to stop him. Enraged by the mutated child. With a fury that would not vanish any time soon, the Hulk smashed, crushed, and overall unleashed a level of devastation upon that facility that would serve as a lesson to all who thought to do that sort of thing.  
Not only to the man who had spoken, the weak coward, but to all of his type. His ilk. All who would share his motivations and seek out likeminded goals.  
The Hulk would make an example out of that place, and Puny Banner would make sure it would be seen. And that all would know that an operation spanning decades, ridiculously well-funded and defended by the best that money and intelligence could arrange for - all would know it took the Hulk a mere hour to turn it all into rubble and dust.  
All their works and achievements. All their forces and strength. The world would find it all pummeled into paste by the unstoppable force that was the world's strongest.

* * *

 ** _Part End: Thank you for reading, please consider leaving a review if you have the time. I can't answer some types of review for some reason so I'll say it here: Thank you for the kind words, I'm really glad you're enjoying it!_**

Had to name one of the titles like this, hadn't I? This one was very fun to write and I hope I did a good job. See you on the next and final part to this short story as Bruce and Tuan meet again.


	11. The Abysmal

_**Disclaimer: Goes without saying but I do not own Bruce Banner nor the Hulk nor any other Marvel character herein included. They're the properties of the original creators as dictated by official documents, whom you can find out more about in Wikipedia or something. Stan Lee, Marvel Comics, etc.**_

 _ **Tuan aka The Abysmal as well as the plot related to them, the monsters and the military, are original by me, but they're still set in the Marvel Universe so I still hold no rights to them.**_

 _ **Rating: T for a bit of violence. I censor profanity like they would in a comic, if I ever use it.**_

* * *

 **FINALE:** The Abysmal

Bruce Banner was back in the cave, talking to Tuan's back. The moonlight was somber in its attempt to penetrate the inside of the cave, mostly being drowned out by the fire he had made.

Or rather, that Tuan had made. It was the first practical thing Bruce had taught the young man.

"So in this place called Sakaar, in this other planet, the greatest, most important change occurred. I had been betrayed by all my friends, who sent me there to die. After all my efforts and all of the times the Hulk helped them, they discarded me."

He threw another nut into his mouth, hoping Tuan was listening. And understanding.

"So I retreated. I relinquished every ounce of control and accepted what I thought would be the death of me. Of my conscience. There would be nothing but the Hulk. And nothing the Hulk could do really made any difference, because this was an alien planet, and alien people, and terrible monsters, so I really didn't care what he did to them."

Munching away on the nuts, Banner breathed out, remembering the day of the epiphany.

"And then one day, I could see through his eyes. Up until that day, we had always been fighting each other for control. I was afraid of the damages the Hulk might cause, and the people he could hurt, and he was afraid of being gone forever. But on Sakaar, because I stopped fighting for control, his thoughts opened up, and we began to understand each other. That's the most important thing for you to understand, Tuan." Bruce yawned and reached out a hand to his shoulder.

He shivered beneath his touch, but relaxed, which was a massive improvement to be showing after only two days. Bruce smiled at the inch of an eye glancing back at him.

"The Hulk became a king. With a queen and a prince on the way." Tuan's eyes opened wide, marveled. "You are not a monster, and you don't have a monster in you or anything. You and him, you two are in this together."

The poor boy sniffed and looked away, disgruntled.

"That is a hard thing to believe in," he said.

"It's believing in yourself," Bruce retorted, chuckling. "It's most definitely hard."

"And how long? How long will you stay and help me?" Tuan asked, a bit hesitantly

"Oh, we can't stay," Bruce told him, in a friendly manner. "We'll be leaving at dawn before S.H.I.E.L.D. finds us."

Tuan looked over at the cave's exit.

"S.H.I.E.L.D?"

Bruce nodded. "Friends but not really. They'll want to help you, but they don't know how. There's a slight possibility they'll stop me from trying, and take you away into confinement. For everyone's safety."

"No," Tuan protested, accidentally growling, and Bruce lifted his hand soothingly.

"Exactly…no. I agree. But don't worry, I know how to stay hidden. For a very long while, I didn't, and like you, I kept being found out. But I do now." Bruce massaged the boy's shoulder for a second and then patted it in a way that he hoped was encouraging.

The Hulk appreciated Banner's wish to take care of Tuan by himself. The Hulk always appreciated independence, much as he might enjoy some of the friendships they had forged.

Tuan took a breath and, for the first time since Bruce had met him, shed a few tears.

"My parents are really dead. And I've…what is to become of my life? I cannot do school. I cannot just…how am I supposed to go on?"

Bruce squirmed under the questions. Indeed, the situation was terrible. Not to say catastrophic. That was exactly why Bruce had been so mad, and why he had made the decision thats he had made.

Less than a week ago, he had declared to the world he was going to be a research scientist. He had applications with the government in process that very moment. But how much more important might it be to help Tuan like nobody else could?

Nobody understood what it was like. The Red Hulk. The Abomination. She-Hulk. None of them were like the Hulk. Not one of them.

The Hulk emoted harshness, and that's what Banner gave the poor young man.

"They are still out there, and they will come for us, sooner or later," Bruce began. "And that's if **we** don't come for them first. They won't be the only ones looking for us, either, even if most of the others won't be looking to harm us. So there's still a lot of struggle to come, Tuan. A lot of pain. You'll never forget your parents, not really, or what you've suffered at their hands."

Bruce glared at Tuan, grabbing hold of his eyes. With the flames of the fire flickering in-between them, they shared something akin to a spiritual sync. A life one had already lived was so much like a life the other had yet to live.

"I'll stay with you for as long as it takes, Tuan. I'll be your school, and I'll be your job, and by the time we're done, you will have a choice. You will either be destroyed by what they've done, or you will overcome it by what you do."

Tuan looked down at the fire, deep in thought. His knees slid up to his chest so he could hug them. Bruce continued.

"Die. Be a villain. Or be a hero. For someone of your power, there is no other option."

"What if…" Tuan scratched his leg, twitching it nervously. "What if I just want to be a painter. Or a fireman."

"That is heroic," Bruce stated, without hesitation, and Tuan's eyes came back up. Bruce was ready to receive them with a hopeful smile. "Trust me. That is heroic."

It would not be possible to explain that right now, but if Tuan could trust him, then there was hope for him yet. And it wasn't the least bit miniscule or negligible.

Tuan shivered. Then he trembled. His eyes shut close, pushing down tears, and he hiccupped. In a spasm, Tuan dove for Bruce, right over the fire, and hugged him. He started crying like he hadn't for years, most likely. The fire flickered back into a calm meanwhile.

Tuan began ranting in unintelligible Vietnamese right onto his lap, but Bruce simply grabbed hold of the young man's back and patted it in a comforting manner, feeling nothing but compassion for what Tuan was going through. Knowing exactly what he was going through.

More importantly, knowing Tuan was putting his trust in him.

In us, inflexed the Hulk, proudly and no less content, and Bruce nodded, brushing against the wild hair of a boy who had been too abused. _We won't fail you, Tuan._

"Abysmal!"

Bruce lifted his head and looked down in surprise. Had he heard it well? He had spoken in English.

Tuan glared at Bruce through tears of pain, but his look was that of determination. With a clear fighting spirit, Tuan shook Bruce's clothes and repeated.

"Abysmal is his name! I am Tuan, the Abysmal!"

The Hulk felt immensely proud, and Bruce did as well. He brushed the young man's hair and nodded at him.

"Good," he said. "A strong name."

* * *

 ** _Part End, story end! Thank you for reading, please consider leaving a review if you have the time. I can't answer some types of review for some reason so I'll say it here: Thank you for the kind words!_**

And that's a wrap. There's a lot less to unpack in this story than in Spider-Man: Repulse, and that was because that story had a third element to it that had to be a lot more developed (Repulse) but here, the third element had to be purposefully drowned in vague mystery (the guys behind Tuan's kidnapping and all those shenanigans). I mostly wrote this story to explore Bruce's character in a way I haven't seen yet, and bring him and Tuan together.

They will come back in a future story, probably stand-alone, but will feature prominently in the the cross-over event that I'll be building throughout the next year. The villains here are not some randos that I'm discarding, there's story here! But let's not get ahead of ourselves since we only have two titles out :).

Next week, I'll start posting the next story. Carol Danvers herself will have to lead a team of power-house avengers to keep a civil war from erupting in very the heart of the Kree empire, involving the very same aliens that Nhaca is a part of (Nhaca is that peculiar alien featured in Spider-Man: Repulse). That one is going to be wild and a way more crazier than this one.

That said, I'd love to hear your opinion on my take on Bruce Banner, the Hulk. Thank you again for reading and I hope to see you again.

Your story writer,

Kuzcopia


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